The House Next Door

1. "Sarah Palin is the new Lola Montès": As part of his gig with WNYC, Nathan Lee posts an audio conversation with Andrew Sarris about Max Ophuls' final film, soon to be released at Film Forum.

["Sarris was no stranger to polemics; this was, after all, the man who went to war with Pauline Kael over some shady business he imported from France. His estimation of Ophuls’ swan song, since retracted but no less forceful a statement of principles, abides as one of the most audacious throwdowns in the history of cinephila. 45 years later, the infamous film and its famous champion are back at the New York Film Festival. On October 4 - his 80th birthday - Sarris will introduce a screening of “Lola Montes” looking better than ever in a new digital restoration. I spoke with Sarris about his ongoing love affair with “Lola” in all her incarnations - including her latest in the Governor of Alaska."]

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2. "Indifference": A poem from Nicholas Galvin of Sticky Lungs.

["There is no monstrosity,/no groaning creature clothed in shadow./I am alone as always,/with the suggestion of menace."]

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3. "AP source: New York mayor wants a 3rd term": From the Associated Press.

["A person who has been briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that Bloomberg will announce Thursday that he will seek to overturn the term-limit law and run for another four years. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made. Bloomberg, a former chief executive officer who started his career on Wall Street, will cite the nation's precarious economic situation as the reason that New York needs a tested financial manager to stay on and guide the city, the person said. The individual close to the mayor said his plan is to go through the City Council to extend the law to allow a third term because it is too late to get the issue on this year's ballot. Bloomberg quickly drew the scorn of term-limits supporters. Mark Green, the former city public advocate who lost to Bloomberg in 2001, called the move "an antidemocratic, unfeeling, power grab." Green said civic and labor officials had already been talking about mounting a pro-term-limits campaign should Bloomberg seek to overturn the law. "He's picked a fight. And now he'll get one," he said."]

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4. "Deadpan Asian female actress looking for work": House contributor N.P. Thompson reviews Xiaolu Guo's novel Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth.

["Novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo has a wonderfully deadpan sense of humor. This was evident in her previous book, "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers," which revealed, in the form of a glossary, a fraught-with-misunderstandings romance between an untutored Chinese peasant girl, who comes to London to study languages, and the bisexual British aesthete whom she meets at the movies. Likewise, Guo's feature debut as a director, the meta-comedy "How is Your Fish Today?" was a gentle satire about a Beijing hipster trying to succeed as a screenwriter, despite having none of his scripts make it past government censors. In her second novel to be published in the West, "Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth," Guo once again goes back to the cinema. Her 21-year-old heroine, Fenfang, has fled the rural life of Zhejiang province for the allure of the big city. Narrating in first person, Fenfang moves from one menial job to another, eventually cleaning floors at a rundown martial arts theater where she watches movies all day and sleeps on a broken sofa in the projection room."]

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5. "NYFF46 PART 2": The second installment of Jamie Stuart's New York Film Festival video series.

["I'm a sucker for anything by Pauly Shore. That guy is badass, man."]

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Quote of the Day: Saint Thomas Aquinas

"Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them. "

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): The cover of John le Carre's latest novel, streeting October 7th. Plus, a profile at CNN.



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Clip of the Day: "It's split," quoth the Fox News reporter.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.